Two top Chinese military officers have been expelled from the military and the ruling Communist Party on corruption charges. China’s Defence Ministry stated that these two officers are the most senior officers to be removed under the anti-corruption campaign launched in 2023. They include He Weidong, the second-in-command in the Chinese military, and Navy Admiral Miao Hua, the former top political official in the Chinese military.
He Weidong is the latest senior military officer to be targeted in the People’s Liberation Army’s ongoing campaign against corruption. Other officers who have been dismissed include Wang Jiubin, former executive deputy director of the CMC Joint Operations Command Center, Lin Xiangyang, former commander of the Eastern Theater Command, Qin Shutong, former political commissar of the Chinese Army, Yuan Huaji, former political commissar of the Chinese Navy, Wang Houbin, former commander of the Chinese Rocket Force, and Wang Chunying, former commander of the People’s Armed Police Force.
Significantly, China’s Ministry of Defence does not publicly disclose such actions against senior military officers.
China’s Ministry of Defence announced on Friday that He Weidong, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and a member of the 24-member Politburo, has been expelled from the Communist Party and the PLA. He is the first serving member of the current Politburo, the Communist Party’s top decision-making body, to face such an investigation.
The severity of the action taken against He Weidong is also evident in the fact that it is the first such incident in China in 50 years. This is the first time a serving general has been removed from the Central Military Commission since the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. He has not been seen in public since March, although Chinese authorities had never previously disclosed an investigation into his activities.
Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang said that nine senior military officers were investigated and punished. “After the investigation, it was found that these nine individuals seriously violated Party discipline and allegedly committed serious duty-related offenses. The amounts involved are particularly large, the nature of the offenses is extremely serious, and the impact has been very negative,” Zhang said at a regular media briefing on Friday.
He Weidong and President Xi Jinping:
He Weidong and President Xi Jinping have a long and close relationship. Their relationship dates back to their joint service in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces in the late 1990s. Xi Jinping served as Deputy Secretary of the Communist Party and the Governor of the province from 1995 to 2002. He joined the Military Commission after commanding the PLA’s Eastern Theater in Fujian Province. Fujian Province faces Taiwan and would be a key area in any conflict over the self-governing island, which China claims.
In 2022, He Weidong was directly promoted to the position of Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Before assuming this position, he was required to serve on the 205-member Central Committee, but this rule was ignored.
The US Defense Ministry, the Pentagon, has said that He Weidong played a key role in planning live-fire exercises around Taiwan after then-Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi angered China by visiting Taipei in August 2022. These military exercises were the most aggressive steps taken by Beijing against the island in recent years.
